Thank you, Mountain Xpress and Max Cooper, for your insightful article about Dr. Warner Anthony and Mr. Andy Andrews, and their thought-provoking stories and reflections of the horrors of real war [“War Stories,” Nov. 7 Xpress].
These days, it seems everyone who was ever in a uniform of any kind wants to get a piece of the military service hero worship that's bandied about in political speeches, movies and television. I'm pretty sure that nobody, however, would willingly take a piece of that go-fight-kill-die-freeze-starve (for the duration), then come home quietly and return to productive civilian life like these men did. There's a reason they call it the Greatest Generation, and I fear that America will never breed men like these again.
When one has truly “been there” and “done that,” he generally doesn't bother with the T-shirt — and he sure as hell doesn't run around tweeting about it.
My father, my brother, my sister and myself all have DD-214s in our file cabinets. I'll speak for myself when I say that I was enriched far, far beyond any minor sacrifices I made while in uniform.
Stories like this serve well to remind us of the difference between "veterans," and VETERANS.
— Norman Plombe
Asheville
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.